Hillsborough clerk of courts giving back part of her salary

TAMPA — Hillsborough Clerk Pat Frank doesn't think her staff should have to suffer alone. Though her $152,000 annual salary is set by the Legislature, Frank has decided to take the same reduction in pay that other clerk's office employees are facing through salary reductions, furloughs and fewer hours. So far, she has paid $584.76, the equivalent of one furlough day. By the end of the fiscal year, she will have returned about 2.5 to 3 percent of her salary back to her office.

"You can't expect the employees to take a cut and have the top administrators be immune to it," Frank said Wednesday. "It's just not acceptable to me."